Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/849592
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 JULY 2017 15 Interview On paper, Malta should be as ideal for cycling as any city in the Netherlands. In practice, however, our rate of bicycle-usage remains among the lowest in Europe. JIM WIGHTMAN, of the Bicycle Advocacy Group, makes the case for a safer environment in which bicycles may provide a practical alternative to the all-powerful motorcar cars passing left right and centre... no wonder they get a little fright- ened. What we do is suggest new routes for cyclists to get from A to B, based on the experience of our members. We try to move them onto backroads wherever possible. Sometimes, however, it isn't pos- sible: you need to connect those backroads up, and this means get- ting back onto main roads from time to time. It's also got to be ef- ficient: bicycles are similar to cars in this respect... you want them to take you to your destination in the shortest and most convenient route possible. There's no sense in going from San Gwann to St Julians via Siggiewi. But there are routes along backroads that you can take; and people may not know about them if they're only used to driving. So one thing that can eas- ily be done is create formal cycling routes, with signage and marking, to actually help people find their way around..." Nonetheless, the present motor- ing infrastructure still needs revis- iting on a number of fronts. Some of BAG's suggestions in this regard are likely to prove contentious. "One thing we might have to consider is removing or restricting car parking spaces. This is a very thorny subject: we're very careful about suggesting it, because we know it won't go down very well. But we've got a Catch-22 situation here. There are a lot of one-way streets, which were made one-way to increase parking: by making both sides of the street parking zones, instead of only one. Mean- while, government doesn't want to bring in parking meters or intro- duce congestion zones, or do any- thing to stop people getting more cars. But that means you've got to try twice as hard to help people use alternative forms of transport..." Government's reluctance can easily be explained by electoral concerns: anything that will cre- ate 'inconveniences' for motorists is considered an automatic vote- loser. But this illustrates another Catch-22 situation. Ultimately, the people complaining most about traffic are the ones who are actu- ally stuck in it: i.e., car drivers. We can all see the traffic situation worsen each year... we continue to contribute to it ourselves... and then we complain when govern- ments try and address this very is- sue through 'unpopular measures'. How does one get out of a vicious circle like that? Jim Wightman argues that we must face the fact that cars no longer fulfil the purpose they were meant to serve: that they are no longer necessarily the quickest or most efficient way to get from A to B. "Let's be honest: cars are not do- ing a good enough job of it. We've let them overpopulate our road- space... and they're not even mov- ing anymore. So you can hardly say they've done a good job. It's about time we started looking at other al- ternatives. Now, we look at cycling because that's where our interest lies: but whatever alternative trans- port we talk about – be it a metro, or a monorail, or ferries, or what- ever – it would have to be planned so as to provide a real alternative to cars. If it's an underground rail- way, for instance, one would have to be able to reach the station on foot. Otherwise it just won't work. Even if we build multi-storey car- parks at every tube station... peo- ple won't bother parking there. Once they've driven that distance, they'll just keep driving all the way to their destination. So we do have to be a little careful when planning these things..." It remains debatable, however, whether our national reliance on the motorised vehicle, as preferred mode of transport, can be lessened merely by providing alternatives. At the risk of simplifying: peo- ple like cars in Malta. You could almost say we're addicted to the automobile... there is an entire mini-economy built on vehicle ownership: importation, the sale of new and second-hand cars, garag- es and mechanics, car accessories, etc. How does one even begin to convince people to change such a deeply ingrained relationship with the internal combustion engine? "It's something we've been argu- ing for some time about within the cycling argument: do you tell driv- ers that, eventually, they're going to reach a grinding halt, and there- fore have to do something about it now? Or do you just let them? When we started out, our attitude was mostly: 'just let them'. Eventu- ally, they'll find out the hard way. But it was pointed out to us that this approach simply won't work. When you think about it, we used to be able to get just about any- where by car in around 10, 15 min- utes. Now, you might be looking at an hour. We're not happy about it, true: but we accept it as part and parcel of owning a car. What about when it becomes two hours? Chances are we would still accept it. So the idea that people will get fed up and stop using cars... well, some will; but the majority won't." This suggests that the change will somehow have to be imposed from above. "Let me put it this way: it's a bit like a festering zit on a teenager's face. At some point, it is going to pop. Now: who actually squeezes this zit... whether it's the Nation- alist or Labour governments... I don't know. But at some point, the transport minister is going to have to take that zit and squeeze it. You can't just keep adding 28 cars to the roads each day, and then build more roads to accommodate them. On an island this size, you can't build enough roads for the number of cars we keep adding to them. It simply can't be done: we can't build our way out of this. So we need to start thinking of ways to get people to use their cars less..." uphill struggle